Contributors Page

Contributors’ Page

Paul David Adkins graduated from Washington University with an MFAW in Poetry in 1991. He has received two Pushcart Prize nominations, and has been published in Crab Creek Review, Healing Muse, and Summerset Review, among others. He lives in New York.

Vinita Agrawal has been a freelance writer and researcher for the past 15 years. Her articles, stories, poems and features have been published in academic journals, casebooks, newspapers, magazines and websites. Some of the prominent publications featuring her work are, Femina, The Free Press Journal, Savvy, Marwar, Hobson’s Review, IRMA and ICPI journals, Sulekha, Babel, Kritya, Muse India, and indianwildlife, indianwriters and more.

Born in Bikaner, India she was educated in Kolkata and did her Masters in political science from Vadodara where she was awarded the UGC scholarship. She is a life member of the Indore Intach Chapter. She believes that writing is the best form of creative expression. She resides in Indore, India with her husband and son.

Murray Alfredson has worked as a librarian, lecturer and in Buddhist chaplaincy. He is a prize-winning poet, has published essays and poems in Australia, England, and America, and a collection, ‘Nectar and light’, in Friendly Street new poets, 12, Adelaide: Friendly Street Poets and Wakefield Press, 2007.

Judith Bader Jones worked as an R.N. in both adult and child psychiatry before she devoted herself to free lance writing. Her poetry and prose has appeared in Art Times, Buffalo Spree, Explorations, University of Alaska Southeast, Imagine, The Kansas City Star, Potpourri, The River Road Journal, The Same, Thorny Locust and numerous anthologies. She was a poetry editor for Kansas City Voices, 2001-2008. Her collection of short fiction, Delta Pearls received The William Rockhill Nelson 2007 Fiction Award. Finishing Line Press of Kentucky will publish her first chapbook of poems, Moon Flowers on the Fence, May 2010.

Maria Basile is a surgeon practicing in New York. She teaches courses in Medical Humanities at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. Her poetry has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Touch: the Journal of Healing, and anthologized with the creative writing of other physicians and health care professionals. A collection of her poetry, entitled Private Practice, is forthcoming from The Lives You Touch Publications.

DeMisty D. Bellinger, a Wisconsin native, has an MFA in creative writing from Southampton and is completing a PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her fiction can be found at Diverse Voices Quarterly, LITSNACK, and Wilderness House Literary Review. She lives in Lincoln with her husband and twin daughters.

Ed Bennett is a Telecommunications Engineer living in Las Vegas and a Staff Editor of Quill and Parchment. Originally from New York City, his work appeared in The Patterson Literary Review, The Externalist, Quill and Parchment, Touch: The Journal of Healing, and The Lavender Review. In March of this year, The Lives You Touch Publications published his chapbook, A Transit of Venus.

Nina Bennett, author of Forgotten Tears A Grandmother’s Journey Through Grief, has worked in the HIV field since the beginning of the epidemic. Her poetry appears in journals and anthologies including Pulse, Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Oranges & Sardines, Philadelphia Stories, The Broadkill Review, and Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on HIV/AIDS and Mourning Sickness. Nina is a contributing author to the Open to Hope Foundation.

Laura Blatt has worked as a laboratory technician, an editor and manager at Wolters Kluwer publishing company (formerly CCH), and as a website writer. She is a member of the California bar and also has a Masters degree in Biology. Her writing has appeared in Tiny Lights, California Explorer, and the 2010 edition of Vintage Voices.

Stephen Bunch’s work has appeared recently in Umbrella and The Literary Bohemian. From 1978 to 1988, he published Tellus, a magazine featuring work by Jack Anderson, Jane Hirshfield, Denise Low, Paul Metcalf, Edward Sanders, and others. He received the 2008 Langston Hughes Award for Poetry from the Lawrence Arts Center. His chapbook, Preparing to Leave, was published by The Lives You Touch Publications in the spring of 2011.

Janet Buttenwieser is an MFA Candidate at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, a low-residency MFA program in Washington State. She lives with her husband and two young children in Seattle, Washington.

Nancy Calhoun has come to poetry late in life. She lives in Arizona with her husband, an Alzheimer's patient, and finds healing for them both in the beautiful mountain environment. Her book, Sip Wine, Drink Stars, was published in 2009.

Frank Cavano is a retired psychiatrist who has written poetry, published and unpublished, whenever moved in a powerful way by his experiences or the experiences of others. His goal is to listen to Heart and Soul without judgement and with compassion. He believes this is the entrance to all healing.

C.E. Chaffin, M.D., FAAFP, is a contributing editor for Umbrella and the former editor and publisher of The Melic Review. Credits include The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Pedestal, The Philadelphia Inquirer Book Review and Rattle, among many others. He was formerly a featured poet in Tryst. His new volume, Unexpected Light was recently released by Diminuendo Press. He also teaches an online poetry tutorial.

Sharon Charde has won many poetry awards, is published over 30 journals and anthologies, and has two first-prize-winning chapbooks as well as a full length collection, Branch In His Hand, published by Backwaters Press. She worked with delinquent teenagers for ten years and has led writing retreats for women for the last 17 years.

Mary Susan Clemons lives in Florida with her husband and two sons. She is a member of NFSPS (National Federation of State Poetry Societies), FSPA (Florida State Poetry Association), and a local poetry group, The Poet's Corner Workshop. She is a part-time moderator at Wild Poetry Forum, an on-line poetry workshop site.

Diana Cole’s poems have been selected for publication by numerous journals including Sahara, Blueline, the Tipton Poetry Journal, The Aurorean, The Christian Century, The Chaffin Journal, Slipstream, and Avocet. Her poem, “Though I Walk,” set for double chorus by Thomas Stumpf, won the Pharos Music Project’s award and was performed in New York City.

Bebe Cook is a native Texan and comes from a southern U.S. oral tradition of story-telling. She believes poetry is an opportunity to create a bridge; a chance to invite the reader to share a few minutes, to get acquainted and loves that every time a poem is read it is transformed by the intent of the writer and the experiences of the reader into something new. She has placed in local and national poetry contests and continues to write poetry to record her own rooms and moments in order to bring that tradition to the page. Her work has appeared in Flutter Poetry Journal, Autumn Sky Poetry, Six Little Things and The Cartier Street Review. She enriches her writing with the diversity of gardening, photography, and working as an environmental scientist.

Published poet/novelist, commissioned screenwriter, produced lyricist/singer and advertising writer/creative director last employed at Saatchi & Saatchi, Kelly Coveny lives in Connecticut with her husband, two boys, and dogs. Her work can be viewed at her company, PancakeFaktory.com.

Maril Crabtree lives in the Heartland. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she is poetry co-editor of Kansas City Voices. Her poetry has recently appeared in the Flint Hills Review, Coal City Review and Steam Ticket. She is also an energy healing practitioner and believes in the healing power of both allopathic and nontraditional medicine.

Risa Denenberg is a nurse-practitioner living and working in Seattle.

Jan Duncan-O'Neal has been a children's librarian, and authored eleven professional books. She now writes poetry and is an editor for I-70 Review. The spiritual director of St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Missouri requested Jan to write a series of poems inspired by fabric tapestries on the spiritual journey. This is the first poem of the series.

Stacey Dye began to seriously pursue the art of poetry about five years ago. Her favorite subject is the human condition. Publishing credits include Mused, Camroc Press Review, Flutter Poetry Journal, BluePrintReview, and MagnaPoets among others. She is a previous contributor to Touch: The Journal of Healing. Her poetry and musings can be found on her blog.

Theresa Senato Edwards' poetry has been featured online at Atticus Books, published in Blue Earth Review's spring 2010 print issue and online at Pirene’s Fountain. Other poems appear in Boxcar Poetry Review's second print anthology (2010); CircleShow (Vol. 1, 2008) print anthology; and online at Stirring, Press 1, decomP, Clean Sheets, Chronogram, and elsewhere. She is founder/editor/publisher of Holly Rose Review. This journal is now closed but the archives are still available at Holly Rose Review Archives.

Sharon Erby teaches at Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, a liberal arts college dedicated to the education of women. A contributor to Touch: The Journal of Healing, her creative work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Feminist Studies, Slice, The View from Here, Chaffey Review, and Glossolalia, among others.

Luke Evans specializes in water and words, sometimes confusing the two. They do not make good bedfellows. He has written many stories and poems, some of which can be found at Autumn Sky Poetry, TQRstories, Etchings, and The Externalist. Do not confuse them as his creations. He is merely a witness, indicting the beauty of the world and all those in it.

O.P.W. Fredericks is the editor and publisher of Touch: The Journal of Healing and The Lives You Touch Publications. His writing style has been described as that of a narrative lyricist. He has been published in The Externalist: A Journal of Perspectives, Autumn Sky Poetry, and Philadelphia Poets 2009.

Robert T. Gasperson lives a simple life in South Carolina with his wife and two girls. He uses haiku to express his need to be creative in a life filled with responsibility as well as to open his mind to the multitude of opportunities this world holds for him.

Born in Britain, raised in Zimbabwe, Dennis Greene has lived in Western Australia for the last 28 years. Diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 37 he took the opportunity to 'follow his bliss' and began writing. In 2000 he was invited to the United States to edit "Voices from the Parking Lot -Parkinson's perspectives." For reasons he can't quite figure his poetry never mentions PD and his prose is about nothing else.

Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician and assistant professor at the University of Chicago. His poetry has appeared in The Annals of Internal Medicine, The Journal of General Internal Medicine, and The Pharos.

Kenneth P. Gurney lives in Albuquerque, NM, USA. He edits the NM poetry anthology Adobe Walls. His latest book of poems is An Accident Practiced. Visit Kenneth’s website to learn more about his work.

Tina Hacker, author of Cutting It (The Lives You Touch Publications), is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, has been Editor’s Choice in two journals, and a finalist in New Letters poetry competition. Her work has appeared in numerous journals as well as anthologies such as Show + Tell, Imagination & Place: Ownership and Missouri Poets. Her poetry appears in several issues of Touch: The Journal of Healing, most notably as the Editor’s Choice in the September 2010 issue.

Monique Hayes is an MFA graduate of the University of Maryland College Park, where she taught fiction and rhetoric courses. Her work has appeared in Prick of the Spindle, The Smoking Poet, Prima Storia, Birmingham Arts Journal, and Children, Churches, and Daddies.

Kevin Heaton writes in South Carolina. His fourth chapbook, Chronicles, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2012. His work has published in more than 100 journals and anthologies. He is listed as a notable poet at KansasPoets.com. More of his work can be viewed at his website.

Jodi L. Hottel is a writer and retired English teacher, living in Santa Rosa, CA. Her work has been published in Touch: The Journal of Healing, as well as the English Journal, The Dickens, Frogpond and anthologies from the University of Iowa Press, Tebot Bach, and the Healdsburg Arts Council. She is currently working on her first chapbook, a gathering of poems about the Japanese American internment.

Sally Houtman is an American-born writer who relocated to new Zealand in 2005. She is the author of a non-fiction book entitled, "To Grandma's House, We...Stay" which is in its third printing. She has written many non-fiction articles over the years. Recently she has had poetry published in Rustblind and fiction in Midnight Screaming and Flashquake. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her husband and two children.

A former art professor remarked that Clarissa Jakobsons’ sketchbooks look more like poetry than paintings. Who would have guessed this observation accurately predicted her current direction? She has twice been a featured poet at Shakespeare and Co., Associate Editor of the Arsenic Lobster Poetry Journal for the past five years, and first place winner of the Akron Art Museum 2005 New Words Competition.

Karen Kelsay has been published in a variety of magazines including: The Flea, The HyperTexts, The Boston Literary Magazine, The Foundling Review Magazine, Pirene's Fountain, and 14 by 14. She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the editor of Victorian Violet Press.

K.B. Kincer was awarded an M.F.A. in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from Georgia State University and is currently in the doctoral program there. Her poems have appeared in The Healing Muse, Poet Lore, Dappled Things, Red River Review, The GSU Review, and elsewhere.

Christine Klocek-Lim Christine Klocek-Lim received the 2009 Ellen La Forge Memorial Prize in poetry. She has three chapbooks: How to photograph the heart (The Lives You Touch Publications), The book of small treasures (Seven Kitchens Press), and Cloud Studies (Whale Sound Audio Chapbooks). She is editor of Autumn Sky Poetry.

Deborah Kroman has studied writing at the University of Houston, Rice University, and the University of Missouri--Kansas City. A Pushcart Nominee, her poems have appeared in several journals, including New Letters, Coal City Review and Snowy Egret. Three of her poems won Boulevard's 2007 Emerging Poets Contest.

Laura Levesque grew up in Baltimore, MD. She earned her Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. She has been published in The Externalist, Autumn Sky Poetry, Mirage, Montage, and others. She lives in Northern Virginia with her family.

Annmarie Lockhart is the founding editor of vox poetica, an online salon dedicated to bringing poetry into the every day. She has been reading and writing poetry since she could read and write. A lifelong Bergen County New Jersey resident, she lives and works two miles east of the hospital where she was born.

Jeanie McLeod retired from social work and from professional clowning at about the same time. Today, she lives on the very edge of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia where she spends as much time as possible outside. In bad weather she writes. Her prose and poetry have been published in approximately fifteen journals. She has won awards for each. She was also nominated for a Pushcart award.

Donal Mahoney a native of Chicago, lives in St. Louis, MO. He has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press and Washington University in St. Louis. He has had poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Public Republic (Bulgaria), Gloom Cupboard (U.K.), Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), Pirene's Fountain (Australia), and other publications.

Arlene L. Mandell, a retired English professor, has been widely published in 16 anthologies and more than 300 newspapers and magazines, including Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, The Dickens, True Romance, and Tiny Lights.

Linda K. Marshall is a retired high-school English teacher, happily married for 43 years, mother of two, grandmother of three, preacher's kid, nearly life-long writer of little verses.

Certified in psychoanalysis by the American Psychoanalytic Association, Stephen Maurer has practiced and written about psychoanalysis for over 20 years, recently from a Lacanian perspective. A desire to be more fully engaged with poetry prompted his partial retirement from Seattle to a small college town. His poems have appeared in Boston Lit. Magazine, Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine, Tiger's Eye, Darkling, Blueprint Review, Desert Voices, Switchback, and Deronda Review. His first chapbook, Side-Effects; Poems of Remedy and Doubt, from Big Table Press, appeared in October 2010.

Stephen Mead "Occupation Madre" was originally published in slightly different form online digitally on Scars.tv in February 2002, as part of a scanned ebook "Heroines Unlikely." In June 2003 it was published in online digital format by the Gutenberg Litengraphic Society as a winner for their picture-story category. (This site is no longer online.) "Heroines Unlikely" was self-published by the artist as an ebook through Lulu.com in September 2005, and became part of Mr. Mead's print edition "Selected Works" self-published through Lulu.com in February 2007.

"Healing" was originally published in slightly different form online digitally on Scars.tv in February 2002 as part of a scanned ebook "Washing the Body". This book was self-published by the artist as an ebook through Lulu.com in September 2005, and became part of Mr. Mead's print edition "Selected Works" self-published through Lulu.com in February 2007. "Healing" is also part of a series "States of Desire, States of Being" which was made into a short film of the same title with captions in 2004. In May 2005 two slightly different versions of this film were posted by the artist on YouTube, Yahoo and Google. Other users of these sites have since downloaded it on other video sharing sites. It was released on the DVD "Captioned Closeness" by the artist via Indieflix.com in August 2005.

Daniel Milbo is a contemplative existentialist and poet. In his writing and photography, he hopes to capture that nucleus of the moment in which awareness blossoms to a greater experience of relationships both personal and universal.

Michael T. Milbocker founded Promethean Surgical Devices, and acts as Chief Science Officer, where he interacts directly with patients and doctors. Before starting Promethean, he was Principal Scientist at ABIOMED, and worked in their successful implantable artificial heart program. We're all familiar with the metaphor for the anatomical heart as center for emotion and the soul. However, patient's families and doctors alike frequently comment that people who receive artificial hearts are alive, but less human. Michael's poetry primarily addresses the importance of the family support network in patient outcomes associated with prosthetic correction of disease states.

Esther Greenleaf Mürer lives in Philadelphia. At 73, she considers herself an emerging poet. Her work has been recently published or is forthcoming in Mimesis,

The Externalist, Town Creek Poetry, and Unsplendid.

Eira Needham lives in Birmingham, UK. She has been a teacher, carer, herpetologist, crafter and poet. Her poetry is eclectic and been published in print and online. Recent publications/acceptances include Joyful! Victorian Violet Press, Westard Quarterly, Yes Poetry, and Leaf Garden. She will have her first chapbook published in 2011.

Sherry O’Keefe, a descendent of Montana pioneers and graduate of MSU-B, is the author of Making Good Use of August (Finishing Line Press). Her most current work has appeared or is forthcoming in Camas, Switched-on Gutenberg, THEMA, Terrain. Org., PANK, Avatar Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Babel Fruit, The High Desert Journal and Main Street Rag. Currently working on a full-length collection, Loss of Ignition, she is the poetry editor for Soundzine,and an editorial assistant for The Centrifugal Eye.

Sergio A. Ortiz is a retired educator, poet, and photographer. He has a B.A. in English literature, and a M.A. in philosophy. Flutter Press released his debut chapbook, At the Tail End of Dusk, in October of 2009. Ronin Press released his second chapbook, topography of a desire, in May of 2010. Avantacular Press released his first photographic chapbook: The Sugarcane Harvest, May 2010. He was recently published, or is forthcoming in: Carcinogenic Poetry, Perceptions Magazine of the Arts 2010, BorderSenses, Offcourse Literary Journal, and The Monongahela Review.

Kaveri Patel loves to write. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys mindfulness meditation, yoga, parenting, singing, the ocean, family medicine, and spending time with her wonderful family. She won third place in the 2011 international Spirit First poetry contest for her poem “Forgiveness.” Her work is forthcoming in Buddhist Poetry Review.

Lynn Pinkerton, a freelance writer, knew in the fifth grade that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Sidetracked by careers in social services and special events marketing, Lynn eventually reclaimed her childhood aspiration, joined a writing group and began publishing. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Gregory W. Randall majored in English and Latin at St.Olaf College and spent innumerable hours in the music library. Classical music by composers such as Sibelius and Brahms continue to inform both the structure and pacing of his poetry. His chapbook, Double Happiness, won the Fifth Annual Camber Press Chapbook Contest as judged by Mark Doty and is forthcoming in late 2010. His chapbook, A Room in the Country, was published by Pudding House Press in April, 2010. His chapbook, Uncommon Refrains, is scheduled for publication by The Lives You Touch Publications in the spring of 2010. He is a recipient of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize for 2008 and a finalist for the 2008 White Pine Press book award. His recent work appears or is forthcoming in The Bitter Oleander, CQ, Cream City, GW Review, Louisiana Literature, Louisville Review, Pedestal, Rosebud, Southern California Review, South Carolina Review, Sow’s Ear, Stand, and other noted journals. Greg owns a financial planning practice in Santa Rosa, CA where he and his wife host the Londonberry Salon a quarterly celebration of poetry in their home.

Marjorie Robertson received an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University in 2005 and has been teaching English at the University of California, Irvine since 2008.

Kristin Roedell graduated from Whitman College (B.A. English 1984) and the University of Washington Law School (J.D. 1987). Her poetry has appeared in Switched on Gutenberg, Ginosko, Flutter, Damselflypress, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Eclectica, Quill and Parchment (featured poet January 2010), Open Minds Quarterly, Ekphrasis, The Fertile Source, City Arts, Breath and Shadow, Pilgrimage, Cliterature, Metromania and Four and Twenty. Other poems will appear in Chest, and Voice Catcher Anthology and Soundings Review. Her chapbook, Seeing in the Dark, was published in 2009 by Tomato Can Press.

Catherine A. Rogers is a widely unpublished poet who lives and teaches English in Savannah, Georgia. Some of her work has appeared in Kalliope: A Journal of Women's Literature and Art and online in Autumn Sky Poetry. An earlier version of her poem "Dirt" was selected for First Place in the August 2006 IBPC contest and was then selected as the IBPC Poem of the Year May 2006 - April 2007 by Mark Doty.

Howard Rosenberg is both a writer and teacher. His poems have appeared in Spitball, Vanguard, and Poetica. He teaches writing in a two-year college in New Jersey.

Mariejoy A. San Buenaventura teaches English and creative writing at Mahidol University in Thailand just outside Bangkok. Her writing consists mostly of poetry because she loves the way it allows her to contain an experience in a vial of words. She has been previously published in the Anthology of New England Writers 2007.

Scot Siegel lives in Oregon with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of one full-length poetry collection, Some Weather (Plain View Press, 2008), and two chapbooks, Untitled Country (Pudding House Publications, 2009) and Skeleton Says (Finishing Line Press, 2010). A second full-length poetry collection is due out from Salmon Poetry in 2012. Siegel works as an urban planner and serves on the board of trustees of the Friends of William Stafford.

A former New York State politician, news broadcaster and award-winning copywriter, Kelly Grace Smith’s passion for the written and spoken word has directed her life for over three decades. A dedicated poet, her most recent poem, white lotus III, placed fourth in the 2009 Annual Writer's Digest Poetry Awards Collection.

Pat St. Pierre is both a freelance writer for adult and children's poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. Her poetry can be found at: Flutter, The Shine Journal, The Camel Saloon, Pond Ripples, Poets Haven, and elsewhere. In addition to writing, Pat is also an amateur photographer. Her photos have been on the covers and included in such places as: Ramshackle Review, The Camel Saloon, Wee Ones, The Shine Journal, Southern Women's Review, and elsewhere. Her poetry chapbook book, Theater of Life, can be purchased at Amazon.com.

Bobbi Sinha-Morey is a reviewer for the online magazine Specusphere and a poet. Her poetry can be seen in places such as Orbis, Gloom Cupboard, Pirene's Fountain, and Falling Star Magazine, among others. Her latest book of poetry is White Tea.

Arti Subramanian is a newly minted doctor who likes to pretend she has a life outside of medicine. She has been writing poetry since she was seven years old. During med school, her love of poetry and the words themselves became a lifeline to sanity and hope, an escape from sunlit illness and barred windows. Medicine influences all her poetry - either as an escape or as core, and she writes everyday just so she can pretend she is sane at all other times.

Janet Sunderland lives in Kansas City with her husband Cliff Kroski. Her work has appeared in The Writer, KC Voices, The Rockhurst Review, Lalitamba, theotherjournal.com, Imago Dei, and others. She’s an instructor at Avila University and Longview Community College and is completing a spiritual memoir, Standing at the Crossroad.

Alarie Tennille is a Pushcart Prize nominee and serves on the Board of Directors of The Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri. Her chapbook, Spiraling into Control, was published in 2010 by The Lives You Touch Publications. Alarie’s poems have appeared in numerous journals including Margie, Poetry East, ByLine Magazine, The Little Balkans Review, Coal City Review, and The Mid-America Poetry Review.

Elaina Turpin lives in Oregon. She is the mother of three children. When she is not writing she spends most of her time in the garden. She is a self professed tree-hugger and has been known to randomly break into song.

Christian Ward is the author of “Bone Transmissions” (Maverick Duck Press, 2009). His work currently appears in Sage Trail, Grasslimb and Sein Und Werden and is forthcoming in Envoi and The Emerson Review.

Colin Ward currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with his R.N. wife, Denise, and their corgi, Cora. His work has been anthologized in "Talus and Scree" and has appeared online in such venues as "Beside the white chickens," "Autumn Sky Poetry," and "Prairie Poetry."

Larina Warnock writes poetry & prose from Corvallis, Oregon where she lives with her husband and four children. Her work, which often details the healing journey of her family, has appeared as a top ten winner in Writer's Digest's poetry competition, Wheelhouse Magazine, The Oregonian, Space & Time Magazine, and many others. Her chapbook, Guitar Without Strings, is scheduled for publication by The Lives You Touch Publications in 2010. She serves as the site administrator for the poets.org discussion forum, editor of The Externalist, and chair of Writers on the River.

Yvette Wiley is a half Native American from the Muscogee Creek Tribe, and she lives in Tulsa, OK. She raised her daughter, earned a B.S. in biology, and works in the environmental and natural resources field. Poetry is a creative expression of the culture and the heartbeat of the lives which surround her. She has one previous publication in the Journal, The Externalist.

James S. Wilk is a practicing physician in Denver, Colorado, specializing in medical disorders complicating pregnancy. His work has appeared in a variety of literary and medical journals, including Measure, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Ars Medica, The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, The Raintown Review, The Barefoot Muse, and CHEST. His chapbook, Shoulders, Fibs, and Lies, is available through the author or through Pudding House Press.

Toni L. Wilkes’ chapbook, Stepping Through Moons published by Finishing Line Press, has been nominated for the California Book Award and the PEN USA Literary Award. Her poem "Once Again" first published in POEM received a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her recent work appears or is forthcoming in Confrontation, Cream City, Dos Passos Review, Poetry East, Soundings East, Southern Humanities Review and other noted journals. Toni lives in Santa Rosa, CA with her husband Gregory W. Randall where they host a poetry salon in their home.

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